Actor Akshay Kumar, who attended the Women’s Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s cricket ground, London, on July 23, was struck by the idea while watching a Wimbledon match on his phone.

Actor Akshay Kumar has suggested the formation of a mixed cricket team(Yogen Shah)

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar attended the Women’s Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s cricket ground, London, on July 23. Although our women in blue couldn't lift the cup, they won everyone’s heart back home in India. This has given Akshay an idea: how about Indian men and women cricketers coming together to form one team?

“Like there are mixed doubles in tennis, why can’t there be a men and women cricket match against another country? Why can’t they have mixed cricket teams where six Indian men and six Indian women play against Australia’s six men and six women? If this kind of a set-up happens, it will be the biggest set-up ever,” says Akshay.

The actor not only rooted for the Indian women’s team but also met them after the match. “I was talking to the girls and one of them said that it would be so much fun if Virat Kohli ran from one side and a lady was on the other side [of the batting pitch],” he says.

How did the idea come to him? “I was watching a Wimbledon [tennis] match on my phone recently and this idea just struck me,” he says, and adds laughing, “On the train.”

The actor, who has been training women in self-defence free of cost for the past three years, feels that the Indian women’s cricket team no longer needs to be seen as underdogs. “Now they don’t require any [more] encouragement. Trust me, they have arrived. I watched them play and it was revolutionary. I met them and I told them that they had reasons to be sad but no reason to give up,” says Akshay.